Sales Prospecting

Sales prospecting is a process that implies identifying and interacting with qualified leads to convert them into customers. Examples include calls, direct mail, events, and social media networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. It helps companies convert prospects into customers, increase revenue, and improve ROI.

In this article, we’ll unveil the importance of prospecting in sales, review 10 prospecting techniques, and 7 tips. We’ll also show you how to prospect using SendPulse.

Why is prospecting important in sales?

The success of every business depends on the number of customers it has and the purchases they make. Prospecting is essential to generate leads and convert them into consumers. It enables business owners to create a pipeline of clients for their brands. Besides establishing a customer base, the process helps build trusting relationships with potential customers.

With sales prospecting, sales representatives send emails, make cold calls, and reach potential customers at events to increase the company's customer base. The more qualified leads they attain, the more people are converted.

Prospecting is a complex process that implies finding potential customers, interacting with them through the most effective channels, and encouraging them to buy. Email campaigns, calls, events, and social media networks are the touchpoints for communication with prospects.

Before contacting leads, sales reps should conduct research, qualify prospects, and create a personalized sales pitch. Going through all the stages is crucial for finding something in common and establishing good relationships with potential clients. Prospecting helps understand leads’ needs, preferences, problems, and interests and communicate a relevant offer. When sales reps reach potential customers with a personalized pitch, they increase the chances for conversion.

Now that you know about the importance of sales prospecting, it’s time to check out some best prospecting techniques. They will come in handy when you look for new leads for your business.

10 Prospecting Techniques

We’ve decided to provide you with a list of the most effective techniques that prevent you from racking the brain on how to start with prospecting. Let’s have a look!

1. Introduce your brand to prospects. First of all, you need to initiate the first contact with your potential clients so that you can make warm calls and send warm email campaigns. You can do it through shared connections, paid ads, or influencer recommendations. This way, your brand’s name will be familiar to leads before you make the actual contact.
2. Make calls. If your potential clients have already heard your brand’s name and the product you offer, it’s easier for you to make warm calls. Warm calls will help you explain your product’s benefits. By communicating with prospects in real-time, you can increase the chances of conversions. Calls allow you to provide personalized offers based on customers’ needs and problems. You can hear their requirements directly through the phone and search for the perfect solution together.
3. Send email campaigns. Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing channels which enables you to reach potential consumers with news, product releases, and attractive offers based on browsing history and wishlists. With email campaigns, you can send targeted offers that meet customers’ requirements. SendPulse empowers you to create professional, personalized emails and schedule the sending time to reach the right clients at the right moment.
4. Demonstrate your expertise. To earn the credibility and trust of prospects, you need to show that your product and company is the best solution available. If you want to become an opinion leader in your industry, consider running a blog, creating guest posts, and becoming a speaker on webinars, trade shows, and other events. This way, you’ll establish brand recognition.
5. Use social media networks as a medium. Since more and more people use social media to search for brands, listen to recommendations on particular products, and order items, consider prospecting through these channels. Use Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok as sources of information about prospects, tools for communication with them, and promotion channels for your products. With social media, you can explore the necessary information about customers and reach them with highly targeted offers. Paid ads will help you with that. Targeted advertising will reach people based on the criteria you choose. For instance, if you sell pizza in one specific city, the ad will communicate the message to prospects from this city with related search history.
6. Implement a referral program. Referral marketing is a wise way of attracting qualified leads without your sales reps’ intervention. Your existing customers will do everything by themselves if they perceive your brand as a good one worth recommending to friends and family. Offer an incentive to current and potential clients to join the program. You can encourage new customers to make the first purchase for a specific sum of money to get even more benefits. As a result, you attain high-quality leads by spending little money on the lead generation process.
7. Consider hosting a webinar. Webinars allow you to reach a wider audience and attain more prospects for your brand. You can position your brand as an expert in the industry and show your competitive advantage. With webinars, your brand can engage with the audience and demonstrate the benefits of your product. It’s a cost-effective way of generating qualified leads and building brand awareness.
8. Represent your company at various events. By attending trade shows, conferences, and other events, you can increase recognition. First, search for events related to your industry and participate in them. By doing this, you can reach people interested in your product. You just need to communicate with prospective customers face to face, speak to a wide audience, and show what makes your product stand out. If you manage to demonstrate your product in the best light, you’ll be able to convert them.
9. Monitor Q&A forums. Forums are the perfect channels to educate your audience. Quora and LinkedIn Groups can serve you as mediums for communication with prospects. Search for questions related to your industry and answer them. Start by providing tips relevant to your industry and eventually introduce your product. Once you gain trust and show your expertise, you can continue with product promotion. Position your product as the best solution to their problems.
10. Use Twitter for communication. Twitter is a great social media network where you can discuss topics and share opinions. With Twitter, you can establish relationships with your prospects and build brand awareness. To discuss a topic, interest, or trend, you should use a specific hashtag. Consider joining a chat based on the product you offer by searching for an appropriate hashtag. Chat runners share the topic of the discussion under a specific hashtag, and users provide their opinions and questions under this chat hashtag.

Now that you know how to prospect, it’s time to find out how to use SendPulse to your advantage and convert more leads into customers. Let’s dive in!

How to prospect with SendPulse?

Sales prospecting can be challenging for your company. That’s why it’s important to use automation tools. SendPulse is a multichannel platform that allows you to reach your leads through multiple channels for free. In this section, we’ll uncover how to use the platform to achieve your main prospecting objectives.

Add subscription forms to your website

Subscription forms are designed to collect customers' personal information. With subscription forms, you can get prospects’ phone numbers, names, emails, and social media. By adding such a form to your website, you can collect contact information of your site visitors, increase engagement, have more touchpoints with your prospects, and build your email list.

With SendPulse functional form builder, you can create a subscription form from scratch or select one of the pre-built templates. Change your form's style, text, and format to meet your brand requirements. You can add a lead magnet to increase the likelihood of users sharing their personal information with you. The platform enables you to add files and images and display the subscription form on any device for free.

Below you can see an example of a subscription form designed in the service.

Create pop-ups

A pop-up is a small window that appears while browsing a website designed to collect site visitors’ data, inform about events, discounts, and special offers. A pop-up appears based on the conditions (behavior and user engagement). With these forms, you can convert visitors into customers by engaging with them.

SendPulse empowers you to create pop-ups and add them to your website within minutes. Consider using ready-to-go templates to create a smart widget. You can develop pop-ups for different scenarios and craft your interaction with potential clients based on their behavior and actions on your site.

Below you can see how to create a pop-up using one of the ready-to-go templates.

Send email campaigns

Email marketing is a great approach for reaching prospects and telling them about your product in detail. Besides educating leads, you can interest them by providing personalized offers. Discounts and special offers for products they were browsing, the information they needed, and news about product releases. Email campaigns are suitable for educational, promotional, and informational purposes.

In SendPulse, you can send 15,000 emails per month for free. The platform’s drag-and-drop editor enables you to design emails to your liking without any knowledge of the code. Use personalization and segmentation features to divide your prospects into groups and send them relevant email campaigns. For instance, if leads have specific products in their browsing history or wishlist, you can send them campaigns informing them about discounts on mentioned items.

Below you can see an email campaign created to inform subscribers about the upcoming webinar.

Connect a free CRM

CRM allows you to automate interaction with prospects and clients, securely store customer data, and manage deals in one place. With a CRM, you can accept orders, keep an eye on the sales process, gather customer personal information for your customer list, and run marketing campaigns. If you need to check the status of your deals, it’s enough just to open the CRM. We recommend you use CRM from SendPulse for free to directly interact with your prospects through the most effective channels from the CRM, collect and store information, and track your deals for free.

The screenshot below shows the Kanban board with deals and their statuses.

Now that you know how to use SendPulse to reduce the workload on your team during prospecting, it’s time to uncover some valuable tips on how to succeed in this process. Check the next section to find some effective approaches.

7 Tips for Successful Prospecting

In this section, we’ll unveil some effective tips to work with your potential clients successfully. By using these best practices, you’ll be able to become closer to your main business goal. So, let’s start.

1. Develop a buyer persona. Before prospecting, you need to find out who your ideal customers are, their needs, problems, requirements, preferences, age, gender, occupation, etc. To receive this information, you need to conduct research first. During this time, you’ll be able to get all the data you need for your ideal profile. Once you gather this information, you can find a personalized approach to your audience. A buyer persona will guide you through the process.
2. Establish a presence on social media channels. Social media networks have already become a part of every person’s life. Users read news, search for information, look for products, and purchase items through Facebook and Instagram. Consider creating content for your Instagram and Facebook accounts (stories, posts, reels, and paid ads). All these tools will enable you to reach a wider audience and educate them about your product.
3. Share relevant content with your leads. To convert leads into customers, you need to demonstrate the value and benefits of your product. Consider sharing detailed information about your product with potential clients through the most effective channels, such as email campaigns, landing pages, tutorials, videos, and blog posts. You can share all materials by sending them to your leads’ inboxes. With SendPulse, you can create and send relevant email campaigns about your promos, product benefits, features, and discounts right to leads.
4. Create videos to demonstrate your product. Video is the best tool to reach your potential clients and show the real you. Instead of creating production videos, consider making amateur videos with sales reps sharing information about your products and the results it brings. Add these videos to your articles and accounts on social media, and send them to prospects’ inboxes. You can tell how to start using your product, share tips and tricks, and explain new topics.
5. Improve your call strategy. Making calls is still an effective technique when applied right. To have a constructive dialog with leads, you need to prepare your sales reps first. Make sure to research these people’s needs, issues, and requirements to create an effective sales pitch. You need to understand your prospects’ problems to provide the right solutions. Get ready with your pitch, and any questions prospects might have. Consider developing a script so that a sales rep knows how to act when having this or that situation.
6. Support your clients at every stage of their customer journey. After closing the deal, you need to follow up with your customers. Send them relevant email campaigns with products they are interested in, answer their questions, and share tutorials on how to start with the service. This way, you show customers that you care and ensure they use your product or service effectively.
7. Write scripts for different communication channels. It can be challenging for new salespeople to find the right approach and convert leads into customers without preparation. For such situations, it’s necessary to create scripts as references. Although some companies don’t use scripts to sound natural, this document is still relevant. When a sales representative communicates with your potential customer for the first time, it can be difficult to adapt to the situation and provide the right responses. So, if you want your new salespeople to use the right language, avoid pauses, and work with objections, write scripts. Later, your salespeople will know your product perfectly and be ready to work with customers without them.

Congrats, now you know what sales prospecting is and why it’s crucial. Hope that our tips and techniques will be useful when working with prospects. Use SendPulse to automate the sending of information to prospects and following up with them.

References:

1. This article uncovers the definition of the term and the importance of sales prospecting.
2. In this article, you’ll find a guide on how to do sales prospecting.

Last Updated: 20.06.2023